China Rejects Binding Target to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions

China will not agree any form of binding target to reduce its soaring greenhouse gas emissions as part of a new international deal on climate change, a senior official confirmed yesterday.

Lu Xuedu, deputy director of the Chinese government's office of global environmental affairs, said it "was not the time" for China to consider binding commitments, and he criticized developed countries for playing what he called the "games of children" over global warming.But Mr Xuedu said China had not ruled out binding targets in future. "For the time being we don't have that capability to make those commitments. We hope we will have that capability very soon but it depends on the development process," he said in evidence to the UK joint committee on climate change. "When we can take such binding commitments will depend on our capability, our economical development level."

According to experts at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, China has already overtaken the US as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. Finding a way to include China and the US in a new agreement on global warming to replace the Kyoto protocol is one of the key international challenges inherited by Gordon Brown as prime minister. President George Bush pulled the US out of the Kyoto process, partly because it placed no requirements on China.

Mr Xuedu said it was unfair to make comparisons between US and Chinese emissions, because China's population was much larger and the country relied on cheap energy to lift people from poverty. "If you only visit Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, you see one China. But if you go to the countryside or just two hours' drive from Tiananmen Square you see a totally different situation." He added: "No matter what kind of commitment we are going to make to the international community, we believe climate change is a serious issue. In many other countries their government today makes a commitment. Tomorrow their government change, they will say no, this is not my responsibility. This happens in many countries, even in many developed countries. It is like the play games of children. But for us, we're very serious."

He said the national climate change plan announced by Beijing last month would save "huge amounts" of carbon dioxide, but that China still needed outside help to battle rising pollution, particularly in the area of clean technology.